It is always interesting to me when I see foreign films that clearly have been influenced by American movies and culture, but perhaps no film is a better representation of that than filmmaker Ralph Ziman’s “Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema.” In fact, there is even a scene in the film that brilliantly demonstrates this where we see several criminals watching the Michael Mann film “Heat.” They get the idea from the armored car heist scene to pull off their own heist, which drives the plot of the film. In many ways the film itself is a tribute to Hollywood culture and is quite reminiscent of classic films like “Scarface” and “Goodfellas” but at the same time entertains by showing us how our culture has affected this South African culture. Ziman paints a picture of this extremely dangerous area in the world and while we sympathize with the character of Lucky Kunene we still fear him and are repulsed by his actions but at the same time are brought into his world by the characters vulnerability.
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The film follows the rise and fall of Lucky Kunene (Rapulana Seiphemo) who eventually graduates from petty crime to more aggressive heists like armed robbery and carjacking. In order to realize his dream of a house by the sea, Lucky hatches an elaborate and violent plan to make his fortune hijacking buildings from landlords of Johannesburg tenements by convincing the tenants to let him hold their rent hostage from the landlords. His high-profile real estate acquisitions attract the attention of the police, as well as escalating a war between local drug lords. Things get more complicated when Lucky begins a relationship with Leah, an upper class white girl from the suburbs who has a drug addicted brother. Now, Lucky must avoid the cops and keep peace in his buildings if he wants to make it out of Johannesburg alive and live happily ever after in that beach house with Leah. As you can imagine, that is easier said than done.
The film actually begins where it ends with an army of SWAT police cornering in on a wounded Lucky who has finally turned to violence and is trying to fight them off. The movie then unfolds backwards, starting with Lucky’s childhood and brilliantly shows how he got to this point. We begin to see Lucky as a child, a quiet boy who wants to go to school and seek a better life but is dragged into a life of crime through circumstance. This is when the film feels the most like “Goodfellas,” telling Lucky’s story and how his mentor influenced him, Nazareth played by Jeffrey Zekele. Nazareth is an ex-solider angry with a government that he has fought for that did not live up to it’s promises. The relationship between the two men is fascinating; it’s part friendship, part parental and partly out of fear for what the other might do. We see in Nazareth the person that Lucky thinks he will never become and then of course, he becomes something far worse. Also very good in the film is Robert Hobbs who plays Detective Blakkie, a racist policeman that will stop at nothing to bring Lucky down.
He is referred to at one point in the film as the “Robin Hood of Johannesburg” and I thought that was very interesting. In Lucky’s mind what he is doing is for the best. He’s not participating in dangerous crimes like the armored car heists, he’s helping people by trying to make their homes better, except in using force and violence to do so he becomes something far worse than anyone ever expected. He becomes a power hungry monster and we begin to see his downward spiral. The film is best when it examines the character’s actions without making any commentary on whether they are right or wrong. Seiphemo’s performance as Lucky is nothing short of excellent, making us feel remorse for the actions of a basic criminal. He plays the part with a quiet vulnerability that makes the character accessible no matter what horrible crimes he might commit. But it’s his relationship with Leah that really humanizes him and shows us what he is fighting for no matter how out of reach it might seem.
Ziman’s film is really a glorious piece of filmmaking that shows us a part of the world that we would usually not see. While the story is certainly not new the twist is that it is based on a true story and therefore actually happened, for the most part. Obviously the film took some creative license but in the end paints a compelling story. The tone of the film is interesting at times balancing comedy with real human moments to then illustrate the horror of the violence yet to come. Much like “Scarface” or “Goodfellas,” you really end up rooting for this horrible person who has committed terrible crimes and that is to the credit of Ziman and Seiphemo that they were able to create a character that both repulses you and fascinates you at the same time. In the end, “Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema” is a wonderfully dark film that shows the struggle of one man to make a better life for himself and how he looses sight of that dream in the wake of tragedy and greed. This film is a must-see for any fan of American crime films and will be sure not to disappoint anyone with its shocking and violent ending.
Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema is out February 11, 2008.
